Thought Suppression: I study the intra- and interpersonal effects of
suppressing personally relevant negative thoughts. With respect to the
former, I have found in both laboratory and field experiments that
suppressing negative self-referent thoughts (relative to thinking about them) results in more depressed
and anxious mood and lower state self-esteem. With respect to the interpersonal
effects of suppression, I have found that women who suppress negative stereotypes about women's abilities display decreased
confidence in an interaction with a male confederate, especially when they are high in stigma consciousness.

Fragile Self-Esteem: Most people think about self-esteem as having only a single dimension: high vs. low. Research has uncovered several other important dimensions of self-esteem, such as the extent to which it is stable or unstable over time, contingent or noncontingent on certain objective outcomes, and defensive (defined as high explicit coupled with low implicit self-esteem) versus secure (high explicit/high implicit). In my research, I have found that all three markers of fragile self-esteem (unstable, contingent, defensive) predict the likelihood with which people suppress negative thoughts following failure. In my current research, I am exploring the possibility that defensive self-esteem prompts escape from self-awareness following ego threat. In addition, I am examining whether individuals with defensive self-esteem have poorer, less detailed memories of failure experiences than do individuals with secure self-esteem.

Borton, J. L. S. (January 2011). Level and contingency of self-esteem predict thought suppression, rumination, and self-reflection. Poster to be presented at the 12th annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Antonio, TX.